Avalice Chronicles Volume 1
by Ultrablockstar
Summary: Two years have passed since Brevon's defeat and the Kingdom Stone's transformation. Milla Basset, one of the heroines who saved Avalice, now travels across the planet in search of her missing parents. However as Milla enters unknown territory she find's herself in several conflicts. (Original Characters belong to their respective owners)
1. Prologue

**-Prologue-**

_Edited by Etherdrone  
_

The trees' leaves shake to the wind carried by the by-the-books perfect sunny day.

Soft grass, enriched by its dew, shines like gems in the light that was being cast down upon it by the eternal globe of life that hanged over the world of Avalice, making the calm plains of Qin, with its scattered, spread-out rocks and boulders of varying shapes and sizes a place rich enough for farming. The expanses of the plains reached as far as the eyes could see far out in the horizon, giving the expanses a glory and reach all its own.

Laying down against one of the larger boulders with her eyes set on the clouds above her as if she was in a daze, was a young girl. Hypnotized by the beautiful swirl of the few clouds that made their presence in the skies, the scattered rays of the sun that pierced through them creating a pattern of lights in the sky that only few people realize it's there. However, even with the spectacular beauty of nature itself in full display, nothing can compare to the beauty of the Avalician night sky, with the spiraling blue spark of energy that adorned it like a swirling carpet of stars, so bright and beautiful that one can't help but be amazed at the catastrophic events 2 years ago that led to its creation.

_Almost two years_, thought the lonesome girl, her eyes lost in the clouds above her almost as if she could see through them. _I wonder how Lilac and Carol are doing._

Taking a deep breath, she quietly picked an apple up from her backpack. _I hope they're not worried or angry for me being gone for so long._

The girl's mind seemed to wander, reflecting on the events from two years ago that changed her life forever, a mixed feeling of happiness and depression filled inside her like a creeping addiction. She not only remembered the fun she had with her new friends, but the horrors that followed still ringed fresh in her mind.

_Shade._

Ever since the "accident", that word has haunted her thoughts and nightmares. If she closed her eyes and focused hard enough, she could still feel the blade at her neck, the screams of her friends, begging her to come back to them. The creeping voice of their enemy reaching out inside her mind, telling her, _ordering her_, to kill and butcher the friends she had made.

...Nightmares were all she had these days.

Trying to shake off the thought with a physical motion from her head, the girl sprung up, grabbing her backpack on her way to being vertical and begun making her way to the nearest village, stuffing her apple in her mouth as if it somehow prevented it from making her think too hard. Whatever it takes to make her feel better, she'd justify.

Slowly, but surely, she made her way through the beautiful Avalician plains. As the girl made her way to the village in question, a small family took notice; driving by the road on some kind of vehicle. "Hey, little girl! You need a lift?" asked the father of the family, though the girl made no response, her mind still working on ways that didn't make her very happy.

"Hey! You there?" he attempted once again, this time being much more successful at snapping her out of her thoughts, looking at him as if he had just teleported next to her on a small vehicle, carrying not only the father, but three of his... children? She couldn't tell at first glance.

"Uh... Sorry. Um, no, thanks."

"Don't be ridiculous! What, you plan on walking all the way to the village?" the paternal hare argued, his arm resting on the door of the roofless vehicle. "Come on in, it's no trouble at all. We'll take you there."

The girl took a quick glance at the vehicle and simply shrugged her reservations away. The father smiled wide as she quickly hopped into the back seat right next to a younger boy, around eight years old, as he smiled a very similar smile to the one the older hare had.

"My name is Zhan!" he introduced himself with a toothy grin. "What's yours?"

She smiled back at him. Somehow, talking to others seemed like an experience she didn't have in quite some time.

"Nice to meet you, Zhan. I'm Milla."


	2. A New Adventure Begins

**-1-**

Milla steps out of the Vehicle, "Thank you." she says to the hare.

"It was no problem, though I must ask, where is your parents?" asks the hare, Milla responds with a serious expression, "I understand, it's a sensitive topic, so what are you doing here?"

Her expression changes to a small grin, "I'm here to deliver something, though I don't know where to the find person I'm delivering it to, all I know is that he's some kind of General." explained Milla.

The hare ponders on who Milla could be talking about, the hare responds "Perhaps the mayor of this village will know who you're looking for.", Milla gestures with nodding her head.

"Well, see you later!" she said.

"Farewell! oh, you can call me Jing." says the hare, with his children waving goodbye "And if you need a place to stay, our house is over by that hill!" called Jing, and off he went.

Milla decides to explore the village before she head towards the town hall, the village mostly consisted of houses and farmer's markets, there was also a few watchtowers, a convenience store, and a bar. Surrounding the village was several farms with a wide assortment of grains and vegetation, orchids found scattered across the village, and a few rock gardens.

As she enters the convenience store to gather supplies, the hound overhears two women, "How's the mayor doing?"

"Not very well." said a worried panda around her late twenties "None of the villagers have found her, I hope she's okay."

_Who are they talking about, is someone missing?_ thought Milla, she grabs some bandages and string for the journey ahead, however to her disappointment there wasn't any poultry or fish to be found in the store. _I guess I'll just grab some more apples_, she usually wouldn't mind eating fruit for dinner, but she haven't had any meat to satisfy her appetite for months now. "How much for this?" Milla asks the bored looking teenaged rabbit boy behind the counter "15 crystals." the rabbit replies in a rude manner, Milla pays the boy.

_20 crystals left_ thought Milla, as she counts what remaining money she have left, _I'm also running out of supplies_. As she continue thinking about her situation she starts to think about the events two years ago again, _I shouldn't have lied to them_, she start to dwell deep into her consciousness, feeling more depressed than before, _I'm still looking for them, but… but I don't know_. She briefly forgets about her recent thoughts after knocking her head against the entrance door of the town hall, she rubs her head to relieve the mild headache.

At the front desk is a donkey girl, Milla walks up to the girl "Um, can I see the mayor?" Milla asks politely however the girl paid no attention to her, distracted with her own endeavours, "Hello?" asked Milla.

The girl looks up and realizes the young basset hound girl standing in front of her "Oh, my bad, how may I help you?" says the girl quietly.

"Can I talk to the mayor of this village?" asked Milla.

"Uh, sorry the mayor is not… available as of right now." the girl says hesitantly.

"Why not?" asked a worried Milla "Is it about that girl that everyone is talking about, what happened, maybe I can help?"

The girl explains "The mayor's daughter disappeared in the forest north-east from here. She was playing with a few friends at the fields, but they decided to head towards the forest, she didn't come back to the village with her friends, they said that they got separated at the forest."

"Did anybody try looking for her?" replies Milla.

"Nobody won't go into the forest, they say there's still machines in that forest."

With a confident smile Milla says "I can help", the girl makes a small sigh and guides Milla to the mayor's office.

The girl knocks on the mayor's door, "Who's there?" yells the mayor.

"It's me sir, there's a girl here to see you."

"Tell her that I'm busy!"

"She says that she can help find your daughter." replies the girl, a sudden dead silence followed leaving both Milla and the girl apprehensive, "Come in…" says the mayor.

As Milla walk into the office she sees a big, chubby, but stern looking panda standing behind his desk "My name is Wei, I'm the mayor of Xīchéng, what business do you have here, little girl."

With a slightly frightened voice, Milla replies "Eh, I think I can help find… your daughter."

"What is your name, girl." Wei demands giving Milla a stern serious look as though he was staring into her soul, she looks frantically around before introducing herself "M-Milla."

"Milla who?", the donkey girl's expression changed from frightened to intrigue _The name sounds familiar_, the girl thought to herself.

"Milla Basset." She replies as both the girl and Wei are taken by surprise by who they were talking to.

"Your one of those girls that saved Avalice, aren't you?" asks Wei, his tone more softer than before "Perhaps you can help, as you might have heard my daughter, Talia, went missing in the forest not so far from here. However those machines still roam the lands and the villagers nor any of the Qin soldiers are willing to help find her, because of these machines, but you've fought these things before. So I beg of you please help find my beloved daughter. I will even pay you handsomely and help with your journey in any way I can, name your price."

"There's no need to pay me!" argues Milla.

The mayor was determined to repay the young basset hound however, "Two thousand crystals!" announces Wei.

Milla makes such a large gulp that it made her throat hurt, she grabs her throat to relieve the mild pain, the other girl stood there surprised by the mayor's generosity.

_Th-That's alot of money, I don't need that much money though_ thought Milla.

"If you bring my daughter back to me, I will pay you and help you anyway I can." Wei repeats, "Though surely you didn't come to my village to look for my village, but I thank you for helping, despite causing you any inconvenience."

"I should be thanking you." replies Milla, still surprised from Wei's own generosity "You didn't have to pay me, I would've help anyways."

"It's fine, you should be repaid, rather you want the payment or not. Anyways you should be going, do you need a weapon to defend yourself with?"

"No thanks, I can manage."

"Very well, farewell."

As Milla and the donkey girl walks down the hallway, the girl asks "Are you really the same 'Milla' who helped save Avalice?"

Milla keeps a neutral expression making a response "I don't want to talk about it, Lilac and Carol deserves the credit more."

Ignoring Milla's modesty, the girl continues "So does that mean you've been to Shang Mu, what is the city like?."

Milla makes a small grin "It's a very noisy and busy place, but it have so much fun places to go, casinos, theaters, carnivals, restaurants, why do you ask?"

"I plan on going to a university at Shang Mu, I'm raising money to go there, though I don't really know what I want to do for a living" replied the girl.

"Thats a nice plan! I wish you good luck!"

"The names Min by the way."

"Nice to meet you!"

After leaving the town hall, Milla goes into her backpack for a supply check, she reads the map for directions and starts to walk towards the forest to search for Talia.


	3. Into the Woods

**-2-**

_Edited by Etherdrone  
_

Milla quickly took another look at her map. According to it, she was at the Lotus Forest, which is where Talia went missing a couple days ago.

The forest was appropriately named, it seemed. Easily, she noticed a large quantity of the world-infamous Lotus Berries; which were known to cause paralysis and if heavily ingested by someone, death.

_Why would anybody let their children come here?_ Milla pondered as she begun to rush into the forest, worried for Talia's well being. The forest wasn't too dense, but she recognized the variety of dangerous shrubs and poisonous berries that ravaged the woods. Not only that, but there were small rocks throughout the ground which made walking around treacherous for Milla, since she had grown the habit of walking barefoot, slowing her down significantly as she walked with more care than usual.

The individual leaves shaking to the swirling wind gave an eerie ambiance to this forest that would send a deep chill into anyone. This was definitely not a playground; not for Milla, at least.

Fortunately, she was used to this. Before meeting Sash Lilac and Carol Tea, Milla lived in the woods throughout most of her childhood. The case being such as that she wasn't always totally alone, she learned to survive amidst the wilderness she called home for many years. In a strange way she felt nostalgic entering such a familiar setting.

As Milla's nostalgia danced in the deepest corners of her consciousness, her eyes notices a glint through the sunlight that managed to make its way through the leaves of the forest, coming from a carelessly thrown object in the leaves and mud of the forest. Carefully approaching it, she noticed it to be a small necklace, its silver chain being connected with a small adorned crystal.

Almost as if by complete instinct, Milla picks up the necklace and sniffed it, her nostrils absorbing the scent of the object in the most effective way she knew how. It didn't take long before she identified it: it definitely belonged to Talia. _She's been this way,_ she thought sourly as she looked towards the north. Being a wild kid for most of her childhood she understood what that meant, her localization skills were sharp and accurate, as always.

"Talia!" Called Milla "Talia! Can you hear me? Talia!"

…But no one answered back.

Milla called and searched the remainder of the day to no avail, no one answered back. As her progress into the woods bore absolutely no fruit, the sun begun to set and nightfall was upon her. Realizing that she needed to rest for a while before searching further, she decided to settle down at a small, nearby clearing. After grabbing some firewood, a few rocks, and making a small campfire, she prepared herself for a lonely, quiet night in the woods, only accompanied by the apples she was about to eat for dinner. The wind continued to blow throughout the forest and not only did it make the familiar sound of leaves shaking with the wind, but a faint eerie whistle began to follow, making it easy for her to keep a calm demeanor and fall asleep.

* * *

…Milla's eyes sprung open after her ears captured movement in the vicinity.

The dark of the night fell heavy upon it. Her eyes were slowly adjusting to the blackness that engulfed her like a shroud, surrounding the faint glow of the dying campfire like the belly of a dying hungry monster.

She rose herself from the ground slowly as her ears twitched to attention, listening to the mechanical sounds that ringed lonely like echoes in a cave. By complete reflex, Milla's right arm sparked with a jade glow, covering its entirety like a shield, hovering just a few centimeters away from making contact with her own self. Still walking very slowly through the forest, she got close enough to get a clear view of the hostile, and her eyes squinted slightly at the source of the noises: a lone, singular turretus patrolling its grounds like it's always done before.

Letting go a relieved sigh, Milla relaxed her posture. _As long as I'm not in range, it's not attacking anytime soon,_ she nodded to herself, nearly turning her back on to the machine before stopping on her own feet, throwing a glance backwards as the turretus made a snapping sound, something it only did when it slotted a bullet into its chamber.

She responds mercilessly and immediately. Without even thinking twice, Milla's left arm points forward as it sparks furiously with a kinetic blast of psychic energy upon her command, the attack she fired blasted through the turretus' cannon and chassis like she fired a bullet of her own, punching the machine's hull inward like it melted upon the pressure of her attack, collapsing onto the ground in a pile of worthless scrap metal with a dull, dry sound.

It didn't even have enough time to fire at her. Its splintered hull smoked as a few random sparks escapes the punctured metal, but that wasn't anything new. Milla however, tilted her head in confusion as something that should have happened, didn't.

_That's weird. Isn't a mutant supposed to come out of these things…?_

Just before she could make heads or tails of whatever was it that she was thinking, however, Milla's ears perked up yet again as a sharp, but still faint yell echoing through the forest in extreme juxtaposition. "Help me!" the voice echoes, "Someone! Help me!"

It didn't even take a second before Milla was sprinting through the forest on all fours, her front hands sinking into the grass and leaves before her back feet kicked the ground, pushing her forward with the same velocity she'd usually display when trying to, indeed, go fast.

"Call me again!" Milla shouts, her eyes now managing to see in the dark much more effectively than when she was awoken. "I'm coming, so call me again!"

"I-I'm over here!" the voice beckons, clearly satisfied that someone self-aware heard her. "Please, quickly! I wanna go home!"

Once again, the speed in which Milla reached her destination was something to behold. Still running in all fours, the hound reached a large clearing, much bigger one than the one she was sleeping in. Much to her surprise, there was a single, solitary tree in the center, with a small panda girl trapped inside a hanging cage serving as its ornament.

She hardly knew where to start, but she figured she had to start somewhere. Milla stood up, her eyes locked on the girl as her mind tried to come up with questions to ask, one at a time instead of a thousand a second. "H-How did you get in there?" she asks.

"Me and my friends got lost in the forest when playing," the panda girl starts, her eyes tearing up in the process of her talking. "But I got lost! I didn't know where I was going, and I was hungry! I saw some food on the ground, but when I came here to pick it up, the trap got me! …I think I hit my head? I woke up just a few minutes ago!"

Milla takes a deep breath as Talia's scent, just as the one she felt from the necklace came to her. Smiling sweetly to herself, she stepped forward towards the hanging cage. "Talia? Don't worry, I'm here to save you. Stay calm for a while, OK?"

And just as she said that, Milla's ears pricked up at the sounds that echoed through the woods. Turning herself back, her adjusted eyes captured in the darkness silhouettes of many, many turretus and dragonflies, who slowly, but surely, swarmed the clearing.

The little Talia gasps and panics inside her own cage, but Milla figured she was safe. After all, she was the one that had now erected the psychic shield around her arm yet again, making its jade glow ripple through the air like a signal flare, collapsing their attention onto her with resounding success.

It didn't take long before the turretus' cannons opens fire on the hound, just as the dragonflies dive-bombs Milla from the other side, positively flanking her. With a quick movement from her legs, Milla positioned herself better, swinging her shield like a battering ram towards the shots of the turrets, making every single shot glue onto her shield like it was a magnet. Using her movement to her advantage, she used her momentum to swing her shield to her other side, getting her feet off the floor and slamming the psychic energy covered in turretus fire onto the dragonflies, releasing her grip on the shield and making each and every single one of them explode in a cadence of metal that ripped the fliers to shreds, the pieces of the now defeated flanking enemies adorning the ground like a carpet of scrap.

The snapping sounds of reloading turretus ringed through the woods as Milla's feet touched the ground once again. However, she was much faster than they were – before they had enough time to fire a second salvo of bullets towards her, she swung her own arm forward like she was pushing someone, and a small barrage of jade energy erupted from her palms like a shotgun, ripping through their hulls and causing them to explode onto each other, their own bullets tearing inside their chambers prematurely thanks to Milla's attack.

And just like that, it was over.

"…Some of them really aren't releasing mutants," Milla said to no one in particular. "What's going on?"

"Th-That..." a small voice came from behind her, much for Milla's shock.

_Oh! That's right, Talia!_

"Wh-who are you?" demanded Talia with a shocked voice. "That was AMAZING! You didn't even break a sweat!"

Milla scratched the back of her head as she hesitated for a second before reluctantly introducing herself. "…I'm Milla Basset."

Talia's face lit up with excitement. "No way! Milla Basset! Milla Basset is actually coming to save me! I'm SORRY for being so rude! I didn't know I was in front of a celebrity!"

"C-Celebrity? Me? I think you're mistaken."

"Why are you so modest? You and your friends are like my heroes! You saved Avalice! I wish I was as strong and cool as you all are…!"

Talia's gushing over Milla's presence was cut short, however. Almost as if it was picking on her, Milla's ears captured another source of noise that was soon also heard by the little panda girl, who became morbidly silent. The sound that approached quickly was loud, mechanical and heavy, something that made the hound position herself for combat.

And just like that, a mechanical spider emerged from the woods, its joints cracking and snapping the vines and pieces of wood that were entangled in it like twigs about the size of someone's torso. Milla's eyes opened wide like saucers at the mechaniloid, definitely caught by surprise at what she was seeing. Something that looked like a spider beamer, but at **least** four times her size, with eight sharp-looking legs and carrying two turrets in its back. Its weight was apparent by how its legs dug onto the dirt with the force of its movement, and the panda girl screamed in terror.

Milla snaps her tongue in irritation as that scream caught the giant spider's attention. With a swift movement from her arms, the hound figured she couldn't waste any time, and readied herself for combat yet again. The giant spider approached the cage as Milla focused on her own hands, a familiar square of energy forming in them about as quickly as it's always been done. Without missing a single beat, Milla raised her arms upwards and aimed carefully at the approaching spider, which rose one of its limbs towards the cage and the screaming, horrified panda inside – and with a single split second, the spider's leg was torn off by the psychic pulse that blasted it clean off with surgical precision.

The blast was loud and powerful, something that caught everyone sans Milla completely by surprise. The spider, now noticing the hound's presence, shook itself in response to her attack and backpedaled slightly, the smoldering stump that was one of its legs now hanging uselessly to the hull, connected to the spider by a bunch of broken machinery thanks to the impact of Milla's attack.

That didn't stop Talia from still screaming in terror, however, which seemed to make the spider stop its retreat, much for Milla's chagrin. She readies herself for another blast, but as soon as she started, her ears captures another sound that whizzed closely by – something sharp and violent, much like a gunshot. The sound distracts Milla enough for the spider to manage to swing one of its legs forward, striking the hound's shield with barbaric force, pushing her backwards and crashing against the tree, making it shake with enough verge to push the panda into hysteria once again.

Milla grunts in between gritted teeth as she pulled herself back from the attack, but it was already too late. One of the spider's good legs launched what was very obviously chains at the cage, and with a solid snapping sound, it removed the cage from the tree and it locked it onto the hull, making the panda girl shriek and cry in absolute horror. Milla jumped off of her landing spot and tried to take another shot at the spider, but the presence of the panda girl made her hesitate and take too long. The spider had the chance to attack her again.

This time, however, she was prepared for the hit. Her shield crashed against the swinging limb from the giant mechaniloid, pushing her once again towards the tree, almost resuming the fight from where it was a few moments back. She grunted, irritated, and threw a quick, sharp look at the scene before her, something that seemed to suddenly come to a complete halt as she pieced together her thoughts.

_No, I can't attack, not like this! I might hit her…!_

…_So, if I can't attack… I might as well try something else!_

Milla snaps her tongue once again as she used the tree as a jumping board. As soon as she landed on it yet again, she jumped forward, dismissing her shield and twirling once in the air, throwing a small but very precise jade bolt of energy towards the top of the spider's hull like a shuriken, making an ineffective clanking noise when it dug itself into the metal.

Her jumping pose was awkward, however. As soon as she landed, her right foot made contact with a jagged piece of rock, one of many that adorned the clearing, digging itself deep into her foot and tearing her skin like many of nature's sharp knives. Gasping in surprise as her eyes widen yet again, she fell on her knees and hands as she skid through the grass on her left shoulder, trying her hardest not to strike the ground with her head and succeeding.

"Milla!" screams the frightened Talia, trapped inside the cage as the spider quickly broke distance and fled from the hound, its disgustingly heavy seven legs tearing a path through the forest in its hastened retreat.

"Talia!" Milla yells back, forcing herself to spring back to stand. Her right foot only slightly touches the ground before she grunts in pain, her foot pulsing so hard she could feel it in her head. The slight moment of pain was enough for her to miss her opportunity, however, and before she could bring her eyes back up again, the spider was out of sight, hiding in the cover of the night, its sounds ringing back deeper and deeper into the woods.

The hound took pause for a while before sighing to herself. _It's OK. This is far from being over,_ Milla confirmed with a deep breath, her link with the psychic energy she lodged onto the spider at the expense of her foot still holding strong. _Hopefully, Talia will be fine until I put some bandages around my foot. …Ouch. Dumb Milla, this was bad of you._

She prepares herself to sit down, the sharp pain in her foot pulsing on her head like a terrible migraine. Carefully walking so as to not rest her weight on top of her wounded foot, she stopped as soon as another gunshot cracked on the tree in the middle of the clearing, forcing Milla to stop.

"So! Destroying my bots like you're having a party; what's the big idea?"

A clearly annoyed, yet still strangely enough monotonic voice came from the other end of the clearing, being carried from a boy, probably not much older than Milla herself was. Wearing some ill-cared for jeans, boots and a black jacket, probably salvaged from a biker that grew too old to wear it, he held a pistol up front, pointing it directly at Milla, who looks at him with a mixture of surprise and hostility.

"…What did you just say? Your machines?" Milla responds, still limping from her wounded foot as the boy's expression could not be read. She, however, wasn't very happy. "So you're the one who has been attacking me? The one who kidnapped Talia?"

"Kidnap… who?" the boy asks, raising a confused eyebrow at Milla, whose posture was half defensive and half aggressive. "In case you didn't notice, not all those machines have mutants in them. If they attacked you, that was probably 'cuz I programmed them specifically: protocol and patrol, right? Not my fault."

Milla had a hard time looping her head around what she just heard. "…So you programmed them, they attack people because of the programming, and the fault isn't yours? One of those robots kidnapped an innocent girl!"

"Hey, who was it that entered a dangerous forest again?" the boy says with a bored tone, clearly showing no sympathy for the words 'innocent' or 'kidnapped'. "You wrecked my bots, I'm not responsible for whatever's happened."

"W-What? This mostly happened because of you! Show some responsibility!"

"No."

The girl shook her head in exasperation. Without a whole lot else to say to him, she turns around and sat on one of the roots of the solitary tree, her foot bleeding from the wound.

"…Don't ignore me, you didn't answer my question!" he says, still holding the gun forward. "My bots! It took time to program them, you know!"

"Please stop talking, this will kind of hurt," Milla retorts with little patience, her hand glowing a fierce jade as she held and squeezed her foot with force, making her wince and groan with the pain, her eyes tearing up a little from the pressure, the headache bombing through her skull like there was a needle inside it. "URGH…!"

But it worked. As soon as she removes her hand from her foot, the bleeding had stopped completely. The wound was still there, but at least she wouldn't lose blood from it anymore. At least, as long as she was careful with it. The boy watches the scene with unblinking curiosity, the gun now pointing to the ground as he simply shrugged with curious indifference.

"Bandages would have done the job just the same, y'know."

"Why are you still here?" Milla asks, exasperated. "This was your fault! Your robots did this! You said you don't want to help, right?"

"Yeah, I did," he said once again, always managing to jab at Milla's patience with every word he spoke. "My bots didn't 'kidnap' anyone, so that's not my business. Why should I help you?"

And with that, Milla's eyes finally caught a glimpse of something about him. Tightly wrapped around his arm, slightly above the elbow so as to not disrupt the movement of his forearm, was a red scarf. She opened a small smile of her own, her mind finally coming full circle. _He's a member of the Red Scarves!_

"If you help me get Talia back," she says with a calm tone, still not managing to stand completely straight. "I'll split the reward with you."

His attention was had. Opening a smile of his own, he crossed his arms and pondered the idea for a quick second. "…How much for the reward?"

"Two thousand. Help me save her, and half is yours."

The boy's mouth was swung ajar for a couple seconds before shaking himself out of the stupor. "You can't be serious." Milla's serious expression was unfazed by his reaction, and a pop of sweat rolls down his face, clearly hit by the realization that he was wrong. "…You're serious."

She didn't feel the need to respond; she already had him. After giving the matter a little pause, the boy nods in agreement. "Fine. I'm in."

Milla smiled, her foot now finally not hurting as bad as it was before. "Alright!" she claims in triumph. "By the way, I'm Milla!"

"Hey, we're not friends, OK? I'm only helping you for the cash."

"No, really? And your name is?"

The boy let go a massive sigh as he finally holstered his pistol. "I'm Kai. Also, I know who you are, Milla Basset. Thanks for the unnecessary introduction."

Showing, once again, surprise at realizing someone else knew who she was, she looking a bit stunned at Kai for a brief moment. "How did you know?"

Letting go a smirk that seemed to successfully annoy Milla, Kai shrugged. "Besides the point that everyone under the Avalician sun might as well know who the saviors of our world are? I dunno, take a wild guess."


	4. The Arachnidroid

**-3-**

Milla and Kai begin to follow the trail of wreckage left by the mechanical spider, Kai makes a loud whistle, impressed by the raw power of the mechaniloid.

"I'll give that maniac credit, he knew how to build some effective bots" the husky says in an impressed, but still monotonic voice "Of course nothing is perfect, everything have weaknesses."

Milla stood silent, trying to concentrate on Talia's scent and the energy signature she tagged the spider with, still walking carefully so that she doesn't open the wound on her right foot.

"Hey! Exactly how does that psychic energy of your's work?"

Milla continued to walk, annoyed by Kai's rambling and banter, she knew he was trying to annoy her, eventually she gives a response "I can sense the energy signatures left behind from my attacks, I usually don't need to use my psychic tag, as a hound I can just follow other's scent."

"You can't find those bots' sent though, at least not those kind of robots." Kai says, continuing for Milla

"By the way, what are you?" Milla asks, ignoring Kai's smart remark.

"Never seen a husky, huh?"

"A husky? I thought you were a wolf."

Kai gives off a annoyed look towards Milla, as though she was an idiot "You may be clever, but you're certainly not too bright."

Milla loses her patience from the remark "Well… shut up!" she retorts unable to come up with a counter argument. The two continue to follow the path, then as dawn came after hours of walking they see the large spider guarded by several turretus, dragonflies, fireflies and cacteons. The spider seemed inactive; still locked into it's hull was the cage that is still holding a frightened Talia, wrapping her arms around her legs in a sitting position.

Milla and Kai immediately dash over to the side for cover, hiding behind the cluster of bushes filled with titular lotus berries, planning on how they could attempt to save Talia.

"Maybe we should try sneaking past the enemies and break Talia out of the cage." suggested Milla, as she ponders for a decent plan.

"We could do that, but now it's too bright to sneak past them, also we can't just attack one of them, it'll likely alert all of them including that spider." Kai said in response.

"We need to do something, can't we just fight them?"

"We're grossly outnumbered, granted we have the skills and power to take out dozens of those bots, the real problem is the robot spider, if it wakes up we'll be in trouble." Kai explains "Even if we fight the spider alone, it can use it's legs to perform heavy attacks, and if it's smart enough, it can position itself to aim those two turrets at me, so sniping it won't lead to much success."

"What if we take out the turrets first?"

Kai ponders for a moment "If you can get close enough without getting skewered, be my guess."

Milla makes a large sigh, and responds in a confident voice "Then let's try it!"

"Did you forget your foot?" said the skeptic husky.

"I think it healed enough."

Kai makes a shrugs his shoulders, "Okay then, so we take out the smaller machines and get Talia out first, I'll distract the bots and take them out, meanwhile you go ahead and get the girl out of there, I'm confident that spider is going to wake up the second I start destroying those robots."

Milla gestures by nodding her head, and begin to head towards Talia's location, Kai position himself about 100 meters in front of the crowd of robots, waiting for Milla to get close enough to Talia, he grabs the large sniper rifle that was strapped to his back and takes aim at the turretus first. Kai makes a small grin as he notices the hound girl in position and opens fire.

Milla hears the violent gunshot fired from Kai's rifle, and begins to dash in all fours directly towards the startled Talia, climbing up the hull of the spider.

"Talia." whispers Milla.

"Milla!" Talia said in tearful glee.

"Don't worry I'm going to get you out of here, I… I got some help… sort of…" Milla expression changed as she talked to Talia, clearly annoyed.

Both Milla and Talia looks in awe as they witness Kai's pinpoint accuracy, destroying every single robot in a matter of minutes with remarkable precision. Milla's hands begin to make a jade glow as she cut through the cage, the robotic arachnid begins to make slight movements, which caught both girls off guard, Milla begins to cut through cage faster than ever, as Talia begins to panic. Kai notices the spider rebooting yelling at Milla "Hurry up over there!"

"I'm almost done!" Milla yells back, trying to keep her cool.

"Milla hurry!" argues Talia "It's waking up!"

Just as the large mechaniloid finished rebooting, Milla successfully breaks Talia out of the cage, both girls falling off of the spider's hull, Milla uses herself to break the girl's fall. _Ugh, I'm going to need a lot of bandages after this_, she thought holding the side of her torso from agonizing pain as Talia rolls off of her, "You're OK" Talia asks after rolling off of Milla.

"I'm… I'm fine."

_Forget bandages, I think I'll need a herbal bath_, Milla thought. Just as she got her bearings strait she notices one of the spider's sharp legs lunging directly towards her, Milla quickly rolls out of the way, the force from the spider's attack was so strong that even Kai heard it from his position, thankfully for both girls the leg got stuck to the ground from it's attack.

"Talia, hide!" Milla yells, Talia makes a short nod and hides behind the bushes, Milla aims a cube of energy at one of it's legs and fires a powerful jade beam towards the hull of the spider stunning it. Kai takes the opportunity and changes the rifle's ammo, he takes aim and as the bullet makes contact with the spider an explosion echoed throughout the forest, engulfing the spider in a raging ball of fire.

"That should do the trick!" announces Kai,before running towards Milla.

Talia eyes widen in horror "I… I don't think it's over yet!" she says as the robot spider emerge from the wall of raging fire.

Kai sucks his teeth in disappointment, "What does it take to destroy this thing?"

The spider aims it's two turrets at the three helpless figures before it. Milla prepares her shield in Kai's and Talia's defense, as the spider fire a barrage of bullets, Milla uses her shield to counter-attack, bouncing the bullets back at the spider, but the spider was left unfazed, Kai aims his rifle again, still using his explosive bullets aims directly at one of the spider's turrets. The left turret is destroyed but it's right turret opens fire, Milla attempts to generate a shield before it's bullets can make contact, but was too slow; the spider hit both Kai and Milla with a barrage of bullets.

Both canines slowly gets up and dodge the striking legs from the incensed robotic arachnid, the spider continue to strike with it's leg while simultaneously using it's remaining turret.

"We need to slow this thing down, somehow… " Kai said, starting to get frustrated with the current situation, Kai ponders a moment hiding behind a tree for cover, while Milla continues to defend Talia with her shield, trying not to make any sudden movements so that her wound wouldn't open. He notices a large gaping scratch at the hull, likely from the psychic blast Milla fired hours ago, _What'dya know, her injury paid off_; Kai begins to aim his rifle at the opening, but he needed a clear shot.

"Hey! Why don't you make yourself useful, and try to keep that spider in one place."

"OK, but I'm trying not to die!" Milla yells back, sharing the same level of frustration as the husky standing by the trees.

Milla successfully stuns the robot spider with a few quick but strong psychic blasts, she aim another square of energy, this time aiming for the other front leg, the leg is cut clean off. The spider looses it's balance for a moment, with the spider distracted, Kai calls to Milla

"Stun it one more time!"

Milla performs the same quick psychic blast to stun the spider. The moment the spider is stunned for one last time, Kai opens fire, the bullet penetrates the armor of the spider through the scratch at it's hull causing the spider to explode into a large field of scrap metal, a swarm of mutants appears before them, flying into the sky.

Milla and Kai after the fierce battle takes a moment to relax, Talia still behind her bush sighing in relief.

"Are you OK?" Talia asks both Milla and Kai.

"More or less." Kai says in a monotonic voice, which annoys both Milla and Talia.

"Lets get back to the village, I think I need a soothing herbal bath." Milla says, exhausted from the fight.

Talia nods in agreement, holding on to her stomach "I think I'll need a feast to full my tummy up."

Milla makes a small laugh "Well, that makes two of us."

Milla and Talia give Kai a sort of mischievous smile, Kai makes an uncomfortable expression and makes a large sigh "I guess I'm hungry too" he admits.

* * *

Milla, Kai, and Talia starts to see the village off in the distance, Talia with tears in her eyes begins to sprint towards the familiar setting with Milla making a large smile, however Kai keeps a neutral expression on his face.

"Daddy!" cried the little panda girl "Daddy!"

Immediately Wei hears his daughter off in the distance, he exits the town hall and sees her sprinting directly towards him with Milla and some other person besides her, walking right behind his beloved daughter. Talia runs right into his father's arms and Wei gives Talia such a bear hug that anyone would think he's suffocating her.

"How can I ever repay you?" Wei says, filled with relief and happiness for his daughter well being.

"It was nothing." Milla says with an optimistic tone, Kai gives off an impatient expression which seemed to have given Wei a bad impression.

"As promised I will give you the two thousand crystals, and also help you with your travels" Wei said in a serious tone.

Talia eyes lit up "You promised her that much money?!"

"Honey, what's wrong?" asked a confused Wei.

"You should give them three thousand instead!" demanded Talia.

Kai makes a faint grin on his face "I'm starting to like this gir.l" he said to no one in particular.

"They went through so much trouble, just to save me! they almost died!" continued Talia.

Wei nodded in agreement "Very well, three thousand it'll be!"

Milla stood there flabberghasted "Y-you don't need to give us more…" but the mayor made up his mind, ignoring Milla's modesty.

"Anyways… I'm sure both of you are very hungry" Wei says, talking directly to both Milla and Kai ,who both nod in agreement.

After Milla and Kai had a large hearty breakfast, they collected their reward and Milla asks Wei the whereabouts of the person she was looking for.

"I'm suppose to deliver this to some kind of General but I don't know who he is or where he is"

Wei examines the package, while Kai leans against the wall in intrigue with his sniper rifle next to him instead of strapped to his back. Wei recognizes the insignia on the package.

"This symbol belongs to the Dōng mén Dojo, I see you've visited such a tranquil, and honorable place."

Milla responds with a nod "They were the first people to offer hospitality when I first left Dragon Valley two years ago, you can say I owed them a favor."

Wei makes a large smile, he replies "The man your looking is at Běifēng, which is Qin's second largest city next to the Imperial Capital Zhōngyāng, it's actually north of the lotus forest you just came from, thankfully there's a road passed the forest."

"Thank you so much!"

"It was my pleasure."

As Milla walks out of the mayor's office with Kai following behind her, she notices Min at the front desk as always, _I should help_, she thought to herself.

"Hey Min!" Milla greeting herself

"Hi there Milla, did the mayor help you?"

Milla goes through her backpack, and offers half of her money to Min, "I hope this will help you get into that university at Shang Mu."

Min stood there speechless at Milla's generosity, "Th-Thank you, but I shouldn't accept this."

"No it's fine."

Min reluctantly accepts Milla's offering.

"I hope to see you over there soon." Milla said with anticipation.

"Hope to see you too."

* * *

It was noon, and Milla was laying down at the calm plains of Qin, staring into the swirls of clouds once more.

"So, Běifēng it is?" She hears a familiar monotonous voice.

"Why are you still following me?" responded Milla "You have your money, shouldn't you be working on your robots, going over to the Red Scarves' base over at Shang Tu, or something?"

"So you did notice this red scarf, huh? That's why you offer half of the reward, you knew I couldn't resist good cash."

Milla made a faint smile "I'm taking that as a compliment."

"Well lucky for you I think I'll stick around, even though I have the feeling that you're going to get me killed… " he makes a large sigh "At least I know you're not a total idiot."

Milla get's up "Běifēng it is" she says, ignoring the husky's half insult, Kai follows her into the infinite planes as they make their way to their destination.


	5. Road to Běifēng

**-4-**

Large clouds covers the sky like a blanket with several rays of sunlight escaping through the openings while Milla and Kai is walking down the road to Běifēng, passed the forest. It have been a few days since they left Xīchéng and the only thing they had to eat was the apples Milla bought at the village, "I'm hungry" complains MIlla "Hey, how far are we to Běifēng?"

Kai gives off a sigh "According to this map, we have at least two more days before we get there."

"I don't think I can wait another two days."

"According to this, Běifēng is known for it's several mining facilities and mineral springs."

Milla imagines herself in one of those mineral springs, eating actual food; she hold ons to her stomach while under her fantasy "I still feel these bruises from that stupid robot spider."

"You're not the only one… "

Milla punches Kai on the right arm, the husky mildly feels the strike, "You're not the one who had to be a few feet next to that thing, while you were over there hiding by the trees!" Milla explains in an irritated voice.

"I'm the one with the gun! It's not my fault that I needed a good shot, also you didn't have to be so close to the robot."

Milla tries to keep her patience, _It's okay Milla he's only trying to annoy you, _she thought making a deep breath, grabbing an apple from her backpack. She looks into the backpack and sees a lack of food "That was the last apple…" she says grimly.

"What do you mean that was the last apple?!" Kai said in an exasperated voice "How many did you buy?"

"I bought like ten or fifteen."

"How many have we've eaten daily?", Kai recalling the past few days.

"Does that even matter? We're out of food!" Milla yelling at the husky out of frustration.

"I blame you for this." Kai responds in a calm, monotonic voice glaring directly at Milla.

"How is this my fault?"

"You eat too much, you hadn't considered our rations nor how long it'll take to reach our destination."

Milla face turns red like a tomato, having mixed feelings of embarrassment and anger, again she makes a large deep breath as she tries to think of a solution. "Then we'll have to hunt and gather." Milla responds.

"You're kidding, right?"

"You're the one with the gun, why can't you just hunt some food for us?"

"You're the hound, why don't you track our food for us?"

Both Milla and Kai give each other a deep stare trying to see which one will go look for food while the other prepares shelter.

* * *

Kai walks through the forest holding his sniper rifle in his hands looking for some kind of foul to appear so him and Milla can eat something for dinner, _I can't believe I was convinced to do this…_, he thinks to himself giving off a bored expression on his face. Dusk was drawing near, and Kai was yet to find any food for the night, the wind begins to blow and the shaking of leaves begin to make him uneasy.

"_Hey, I'm okay with hunting for food, but wouldn't it be embarrassing for a girl to hunt for you?"_

Kai begins to make a growl, "How could I have been so weak minded, apparently she learned some smooth talking skills from her friends, she's clever… but she's still foolish." he said to himself "I'll get back at her for this!"; a flock of birds flies out of the tree line, the husky making an annoyed face takes aim at the flock of birds and opens fire…

Milla is sitting by the campfire she made as Kai appears with some foul at hand with their feathers already plucked out, she makes a disgusted look to her face, however her hunger was so strong that she immediately takes at least two of the birds and put them over the campfire. The hound tries her best to be patient but her saliva was overflowing behind her mouth like a waterfall as the foul becomes a nice, crispy, golden brown.

"You're alright, when exactly was the last time you had any meat?" asks Kai as he witnesses Milla's anticipation for dinner.

"Uh… a few months" Milla responds while licking her lips.

Kai keeps his face neutral, when the food finally finish cooking both canines carefully grab their food from the campfire trying to avoid getting burned. Milla makes a large smile as she eats her food, Kai simply observes the hound's savage behavior "You're going to choke if you too fast." he says in his iconic monotonic voice.

"Sorry, I just haven't had meat in so long!"

"I guess we should get some shut eye soon."

"OK, lets hope we reach the city by tomorrow."

"You and me alike."

Milla and Kai wakes up after dawn, Milla stretching with just her tanktop and pants on, while Kai starts to put on his jacket and strap his sniper rifle and dual pistols; Milla puts her shirt on over her tanktop and puts on her gloves and anklets; both the husky and hound begins to walk down the road. They notice a sudden incline and off in the distance after eight more hours of walking they see a small plateau at the side of a mountain, on top of the plateau was a medium sized city.

"I think we're finally here." Kai says in anticipation.

Milla responds "So this is Běifēng, how do we even get into the city?"

Both Kai and Milla look around for an entrance and notices a lone tibetan wolf miner.

"Hey, you!" Kai calling out to the wolf.

"Yeah?" the wolf responds.

"How do we get up into that city?"

The wolf makes a small grin "You're new here, aren't you? You need to take a lift to Běifēng."

"Thank You!" Milla says, Kai makes a small nod and both the hound and husky, along with the wolf head over to the lift.

After exiting the lift to the city they notice a large amount of miners, soldiers, and hunters; most of the stores sold mining equipment and weaponry. at the center of town was a large bank in contrast to a town hall, the city was surrounded by concrete walls with several large watchtowers that made the smaller wooden watchtowers at Xīchéng seem ineffective by comparison. Stationed on those watchtowers were several snipers either using rifles, composite bows, or heavy crossbows.

"So this is the Qin Empire's northern most city, Běifēng." Kai says, quite impressed with the city's fortification

"Why is there so many soldiers here?" Milla asks

The wolf that came up the lift with them overhears, "Běifēng was originally a fort when Qin and Shuigang was at war with each other, after Qin's defeat however it became the city of Běifēng for it's large quantities of rare minerals and metals."

"I didn't know Shuigang was at war with Qin."

Kai joins the conversation "To be fair, Qin don't exactly have the best relationship with the three origin kingdoms, especially Shuigang. I can imagine that Qin's political officials are right now taking full advantage of the whole incident two years ago, especially with the situation behind Prince Dail."

"Hey, it wasn't Dail's fault!" Milla scalding Kai in the prince's defense.

"How would you know?"

"I just… I just do" Milla responds giving a depressed face _I just do…_ she thinks to herself.

Kai changes the subject "We're looking for some General, know where he is?"

The wolf makes a serious face "So you're looking for General Glaust?" the wolf explains "Lucky for you I know where he is, the name's Fang."

"Well, isn't that convenient for us, right Milla, Milla?"

Milla is still lost in her thoughts _I hope Dail is alright._

"Hello? Avalice to Milla Basset." Kai snapping his fingers in front of Milla's face.

"Huh, oh sorry." Milla responds after being snapped out of her thoughts "Okay, lets go!"

Milla and Kai follows Fang to the outskirts of town passed the northern gate and down a mountain pass, after a half an hour of following the wolf they see a house over by a cliff, when they reach the house it was locked to Fang's surprise "Why is it locked, I guess he went out to the city, I'm very sorry for the inconvenience."

"I was wondering what where you were Fang, and I see you brought some guests." The three canines noticing a calm and proud voice

Milla turns her head and to her surprise she sees a Dragon! The man was at least twenty-four, he had a militaristic uniform with dual swords on his back, his hair was medium in size with a ponytail and facial hair, with claws sharp and strong enough to climb the most treacherous of mountains, his right horn was cut clean off.

"My name is General Jin Glaust, what may I do for you?"


	6. The Draconic General

**-5-**

The three canines wait in the general's living room, waiting for Jin to make his appearance. After about twenty minutes of waiting, the general comes in holding a tray with four small cups of tea, he sits down on a chair and place down the tray on what appears to be a coffee table.

"It's an honor and surprise to meet you Milla Basset." Jin says in a calming voice "Well, I would like to say surprise, but I was expecting you."

"You were expecting me?" Milla says, confused.

"Of course, the master of the Dōng mén Dojo, Jie Jilu, informed me of your arrival." Jin explains "Though I am surprised to see someone of the Red Scarves." Jin look towards Kai's direction, greeted with a smirk on the husky's face.

"Is that a problem?" Kai said in response.

"Not at all, although the Red Scarves is a group of mercenaries, trained in thievery and assassination, they still have a sense of discipline and occasionally, honor. I would hope that you are one of those few Scarves members." The general observes the nonchalant husky leaning back on his chair, arms behind his head and right leg on top of his left leg, realizing the scarf inappropriately positioned on his left arm "But you're not a member." Jin said after scanning the husky boy, leaving the husky with a serious face and Milla and Fang confused.

Kai gives out a sigh "I'm an affiliate." he finally said after a few minutes of silence, "I help design bots for the Red Scarves for both security and training, there, happy?" Jin responds with a small grin.

"So thats why you messed around with those machines back at the Lotus Forest." Milla said in an enlightened tone only to become furious "Why would you test robots like that in a forest anyways?! Look at what they caused, why couldn't you do that in some kind of testing area or something?! I'm covered in bruises because of you, not to mention Talia's kidnapping!"

"I'm going to say this one last time." Kai responds in a monotonic and exasperated voice "That. Wasn't. My. Fault! Besides that was almost a week ago get over it!" Both canines begin to growl at each other, Jin gives off a loud deliberate cough.

"Anyways, Milla you have something to deliver to me, right" Jin says trying to keep the peace

Milla responds "Oh! thats right!" Milla grabs something wrapped up in cloth, with the Dōng mén Dojo insignia. Jin grabs the item and begins to unwrap it; after unwrapping the cloth a small, glint katana with a jade green handle appears before Milla and Kai.

"That's the item Milla was supposed to deliver to you?!" Kai said in disappointment.

"This is crafted in reinforced Běifēng steel, sent to Dōng mén to one of the best blacksmiths in Qin." Jin explained "This is possibly one of the strongest blades you'll ever see in Avalice."

Kai gives a skeptical face "One of the strongest, huh?"

Jin turns towards Milla "I have a question for you Milla."

Milla responds "Yeah."

"How long were you at the Dōng mén Dojo?"

Milla recalls when she first entered Qin territory, Dōng mén was the only way to get in and out of the Qin Empire, "six or seven months"

"Have they tried teaching you swordplay?" Jin said giving off a grin which made all three canines confused and suspicious.

"Yeah, but I only know the basics, I'm not very good." Milla says modestly, scratching the back of her head.

"Kai, you seem like someone who know your materials, do you recognize the material used to make the handle of the sword?"

Kai examines the katana, and was perplexed by the material "I… I don't recognize it, what is this?" after pondering for a moment, Kai asks Milla for one of her gloves observing the arrow-like symbol on the glove. "This is the same material from Milla's gloves and anklets… "

"Correct!" confirmed the draconic general "A small sample of this material was founded not so long after Brevon's arrival to Avalice, when the miners found it they were very confused but intrigued about what it could be, after days of observing the material we decided to send it over to the eastern city of Dōng mén for further observation. When Milla came to stay at the Dojo, you can imagine Jie's surprise when he discovered the striking similarities of her bracelets and anklets to the material."

"So the sword was never meant for you, wasn't it?" Kai responds giving off a neutral face.

"It was made specifically for Milla, I suppose Jie felt as though she could improve her skills through swordplay."

Milla holds the sword and sees her reflection through the blade "I don't think I could accept this, I only know the basics, I don't deserve this kind of gift."

"Don't be so modest, I'll make you a sheath and start training you tomorrow. There's an inn not so far from here, tell the Innkeeper that General Glaust sent you and she'll gladly let you stay for free."

"Thank you." Milla says bowing in respect, after she got up she asks the general a question "Are you a dragon?"

"Indeed, I am a dragon." Jin responds "You're not the first one to ask that question, I'll see you tomorrow then."

* * *

Milla and Kai reaches the inn the general informed them about, the inn was about two stories tall, and similar to Jin's house it lied on the side of a cliff, overlooking the city of Běifēng. When both the hound and husky enters the Inn they see a middle aged rodent-like woman brooming the lobby floor, the woman notices the two pre-teenage children standing by the front door "Welcome, how may I help you?"

Kai stays silent, Milla greets the woman "Hello, General Glaust sent us here."

"Ah, the good general sent you, well then, allow my son to take you to your room." A eighteen year old rat boy lead them to their room. The room had two full-size beds with one night table with a blue candle in between and a dresser across from the two beds with a television on top of it.

"This is a nice room!" Milla says cheerfully.

Kai seemed disappointed and responds "I would've prefered to be in a separate room from you, but I guess I should be grateful that the woman let us stay free of charge."

Kai continues "Well, I'm going to go get some supplies, and some new gear."

"Why not get some new clothes too then." Milla says with a neutral face.

"What do you mean I need new clothes?!"

"Have you seen yourself? You look ragged… and are those oil stains, when was the last time you washed your clothes?"

"Fine, I'll get new clothes, only to shut you up."

Milla unpacks her stuff as Kai leaves and continue to glare at the katana Jin gave her, she examines the sword and confirmed that the handle was made with the same material as her anklets. A twenty year old girl appears before Milla, the hound assumes she's one of the Innkeeper's children "I forgot to thank your mother for letting us stay for free."

The girl makes a faint smile and responds "It's our pleasure, you're friends with General Glaust so it's only natural we provide hospitality, also your towels are ready."

"Towels, for what?"

"For the hot springs of course, your friend told me that you're all bruised up, and that you'll need a relaxing time at the hot springs."

"Really, that doesn't sound like Kai to me." Milla makes a grin "Oh well, whatever he has planned, I'll just take advantage of this little favor of his."

Milla, wearing only the towel the girl prepared for her, enters the hot spring with several therapeutic candle and health petal water flowing down into the spring, she gets into the spring, _I needed this SO MUCH_.

* * *

Kai enters the gun shop, with a large assortment of firearms and crossbows, he takes a look at the available ammo, he sees regular, reinforced, and explosive physical bullets as well as special energy bullets for his sniper rifle. There was several different types of rifles, shotguns, machineguns and pistols; Kai replaces his dual pistols and their holsters for more accurate shots, a new scope for his sniper rifle, and restocks on ammo including some energy bullets.

He then heads over to the clothing store to by a more clean and modern black jacket with two straps to keep it closed, a familiar pair of black jeans and boots as well as a white t-shirt, the jacket was the only real difference with his wardrobe. Finally the husky heads over to the blacksmith and bought a small hunter's knife, _I guess one melee weapon can do me some good… I still rather still shoot the heads off of my enemies_ _though._

Kai begins to walk back to the inn after gathering supplies and gear, as he enters the room and notices Milla sitting on her bed in a bathrobe watching some kind of movie, "I see you enjoyed the hot springs, though you do realize you owe me twice now."

"You're the one who told the girl to take me to the springs, though I guess I owe you now."

"Now?! You owed me for making me hunt!"

"How is that a bad thing?"

"What are you watching anyways?"

"Some horror flick, what can I say I like a good surprise."

Kai unstraps his rifle and new holsters with his new pistols, taking off his jacket he gets on his bed and decides to watch the movie with Milla, who seemed to be invested on the film. After watching a few movies both canines goes into a deep slumber.


	7. New Training

**-6-**

It was beginning to drizzle at Běifēng, the wind was non existent and the sound of raindrops colliding with the ground was enough to keep anyone in a deep slumber. Milla continue to sleep while Kai puts his jacket on and begin to wake the sleeping hound, "Milla your up?" Kai said trying his best not to slap the girl in the face to get back at her, but he restrains himself "Hello? Milla get up." he repeats in his usual monotonic voice. "Milla!" he finally yells, the hound abruptly wakes, while under her short panic, Milla grabs the katana on top of the night table and points it directly at Kai's face which was only a few centimeters away from the tip of the blade. The husky attempts to keep a neutral face but a sweat begins to roll down "Perhaps it's best for you not to sleep next to your sword, and don't use protection as an excuse, that's what your psychic powers are for" he says in a semi-frightened voice.

Milla notices the person she's pointing the katana at, "I'm sorry, you took me by surprise." Milla apologizes to Kai, she looks outside the window and notices the drizzle of rain "Is it raining?"

"Yeah, you think Jin is going to still train you today?"

Milla thinks for a moment and gets out of the bed "I'm going over there anyways!" Milla says with determination. She realizes she's still wearing her bathrobe and while scratching the back of her head she asks "Uh, can you leave the room, please. I need to change my clothes."

Kai leaves the room, after waiting a few minutes Milla exits the room with her usual attire and holding her sword. Both canines begin to follow the mountain pass to Jin's house and notices Fang walking towards opposite direction.

Milla greets the wolf "Hi there Fang!"

"Oh, hello Milla, Kai." Fang greets both canines back, "So you're heading over to Jin's house, he's waiting for you guys."

"So he's still going to train me in this weather?"

"Well, he is a very disciplined man, also he seems very… reserved." Fang explains "Not that's a bad thing, he's actually very sweet and kind, in fact if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have a roof over my head and neither would my younger siblings."

"He offered you and your siblings a home?"

"Yeah, well he offered me a place to stay, but he knew someone who would take them in, Jie, the master of the Dōng mén Dojo; Jie was willing to take my younger brother and sister."

"I might have met them then, what are their names?"

"Ginger and Zhao Shi."

Milla ponders for a moment, trying to recognize the names, she finally remember the two siblings "They're doing alright, Ginger is a sweet girl while Zhao is very heroic."

Fang makes a faint laugh "That sounds like them, good to hear they're OK, I'll see you later."

"You go on ahead, I'm going to ask Fang something." Kai says to Milla, she makes a nod in response.

Milla decides to make up for lost time and begin running in all fours towards Jin's house, as the hound enters the house she notices that no ones home, she searches the house for the missing general, she then sees a back door and sees Jin with both of his swords drawn with several logs with slices. Milla meets Jin at what she assumed was a training area, "Hi there!"

Jin makes a grin "Took you long enough, what happened?"

"I overslept and we bumped into Fang, she seems really grateful for your hospitality."

"Really? That's the first time I heard her be grateful for anything, but I know why she doesn't admit to it."

"But that's not nice, she should be telling you that she is grateful, not me!"

Jin pats Milla's head, "I'll tell you about it later, let's get started." the draconic general continues "Show me what you got.", he sits on top of a stump and began drinking tea as Milla starts swinging her sword and occasionally striking the training log.

* * *

Meanwhile Kai is at the shooting range, he grabs his sniper rifle, takes aims and with outstanding precision he shoot down targets one by one. The soldiers and hunters at the range are left shocked at the husky boy's amazing accuracy, he never misses and always aim at the right points, as Kai continue to blast the targets and audience away, he begins to think about his discussion with Fang, _I'll give that woman credit, she's determined._

"_What's the big idea?"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_If your younger brother and sister is at Dōng mén, why aren't you with them?"_

"_Because it's my fault that we're in this mess, Zhao and Ginger was always so close to me so when I ran away after an argument with my father, Zhao and Ginger followed. We had no food, water or even shelter, but then Jin found us. He gave us shelter, but he couldn't provide for us all, so I decided to have Jin send them to the Dōng mén_ _Dojo where I know they will be treated well, and maybe even become stronger, while I get my life together. That's why I'm working at the mines so I can raise money to someday be able to support my siblings."_

"_Well then I wish you luck, though don't do anything stupid or over do it."_

Kai snaps back at reality, and realizes that all of the targets have been completely eradicated, the audience who gathered around Kai was in awe at his amazing performance, the husky looks around him "Hey, never seen anyone practice his aim before?" he said in a rude and monotonic manner.

Kai enters the Běifēng park and notices a few children playing at the playground with their older siblings, he snaps his tough _who needs them_. The husky finds a tree that seems big enough to shelter him from the drizzling rain, he lays down and takes a nap, _who needs siblings, who needs family_.

* * *

Milla stances at the training area behind Jin's house, exhausted from hours of training, she begins to hyperventilate from lack of oxygen, "I think… I'm going to… pass out… "

Jin responds "You did great, I think you should relax now, you worked long and hard, you've shown that you have great determination."

"Thank you" Milla says trying not to pass out.

"Let's go inside."

Milla and Jin goes into the house, the dragon prepares some chow mein for both himself and Milla, he places two bowls on the dining table, "What kind of drink would you like?" Jin asks the hound.

"I'll take some seltzer." the hound responds in a happy voice, "I know I complained about being tired earlier, but I really had a good time training." she continue changing into a serious face.

"I'm pleased to hear that, I know that the training might be harsh, especially in this weather." Jin said while drinking some ginger tea.

"I'm fine with the harsh conditions, I lived in the wilds most of my childhood, not to mention what I've been through two years ago, but about Fang."

"Fang, she's a very independent woman, all she wants to do is protect her younger siblings, however when we first met she didn't have the means to care for them."

"How long has she lived with you now then?" Milla asks.

"four years now, she was fifteen, Zhao was ten, and Ginger was only four at that time." Jin explains "We agreed that Dōng mén Dojo was the best place for Zhao and Ginger."

"I see" Milla says in a soft voice, the two continued to eat, however they hear Kai enter the house.

"I told her not to do something stupid!" Kai says to himself.

"What happened?" Milla asked in response.

"It's Fang."

"What about Fang, what happened to her?" Jin demanded.

"She got herself lost in the mine, some miners said that they couldn't find her."

"We need to find her then, but I fear that given the weather outside, the mines may not be the safest place to enter." the general ponders for a moment "Will you two find her, I'll try to convince the soldiers to let you into the mine, you guys are lighter and younger, so you should be able to fit through the small crevices while safely going through the mineshafts."

Milla joins in the conversation "But you're a dragon couldn't you you find her faster?"

"Speed may not be the best thing for this situation, those mines could be unstable, we don't want to cause a cave in."

Milla and Kai nods in agreement, Jin leads them to the main entrance to the Běifēng Mines below the city east of the lift. Several soldiers was guarding the main entrance to the mineshaft, Jin told them to let Milla and Kai enter; the soldiers, although skeptical, obeyed the generals orders, and permitted both canines entrance into the mineshaft.


	8. Enter Běifēng Mines

**-7-**

It have been ten minutes since Milla and Kai entered the Běifēng Mines; the two canines notices a large assortment of minerals and metals throughout the mineshaft. Kai out of boredom starts to list the different elements found in the mines "Iron, Lead, Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Phosphorous, Sulfur…"

Milla begins to daydream either in response to Kai's monotonic voice or from walking through the monotonous pattern of steel and wooden supports. The hound starts to yawn and glare at her sword. _How long are these mines_, she thought to herself as she begins to feel exhausted from the boredom, the dripping water from the occasional stalactites did no justice. After a few more minutes of walking, the two dogs hears a faint earthquake which catches both Milla and Kai by surprise, both decides to rush through the mines.

"We need to hurry!" Milla argues

The two finally reaches the first intersection, the intersection was a large cavernous chamber ravaged with a multitude of stalagmites, stalactites, and variety of colorful crystalline formations; at the ceiling of the chamber is a round grating acting as a source of ventilation and sunlight. Networks of railways extends from the intersection into four of the eight tunnels converging at the intersection, the other four tunnels had water running through them like a sort of aqueduct, however it was unsure rather the water was for drinking or sanitation.

"It's so pretty!" Milla says, impressed by the beautiful scene in front of her.

"It's definitely a sight for sore eyes, but remember we're here to find..." Kai is interrupted by more seismic activity; a swarm of bat-like irises appears out the northern tunnel flying past Milla and Kai in a state of panic, leaving both canines confused.

"What was that about?" Kai said, looking into the tunnel the irises emerged from.

"I don't know, as long as it's not some kind of giant mantis, I think it'll be fine" Milla says with a small grin.

Kai raises an eyebrow in confusion "What is that suppose to mean?"

"It's best I don't talk about it…"

"Alright then, you'll tell me eventually. Let's see what scared off those mutants."

Milla and Kai follows the tunnel the irises vacated from, the mineshaft had the same pattern of metallic and wooden support beams as the tunnel they entered the Běifēng Mines from. As the earthquakes became more frequent, small dust particles begins to fall down from the ceiling, both dogs cover their faces to avoid breathing the potentially harmful particles. They reach an elevator shaft at the end of the tunnel, however the elevator was at the bottom level; both Milla and Kai looks down the shaft out of curiosity.

"You think the lift is down there?" asks Kai rhetorically.

"We should go down there."

Kai looks around and notices a ladder "I guess we can take that ladder, It's used for elevator maintenance."

Milla sees the old rusty ladder and makes a skeptical look "Eh, I think you can take the ladder, I'm just going to jump down."

"You can't survive that fall, I'd like to see you try… let me get down first though" Kai climbs down the ladder and in a skeptical posture he awaits Milla at the bottom of the shaft, on the inactive lift. Milla jumps down the shaft with her legs folded toward her body, when she got close enough to the ground she extends her legs giving off a powerful burst of psychic energy, stopping her velocity and allowing her to land safely.

"I didn't know you can do that."

"Yeah, I actually used to fly, but I guess it became impractical as I've became older, so I learned to use my psychic energy to boost me up places I can't normally reach." Milla explains

Kai makes a skeptical face, imagining the concept of a flying basset hound he shakes his head and starts walking with Milla behind him, again seismic activity commenced.

Milla and Kai became worried about the frequent earthquakes that began to annoy them.

They reach an underground lake with a similar theme to the intersection, after heading west of the lift. The lake gave out a dense steam giving both canines the impression. that the lake was boiling hot, so they try to avoid falling into the body of water. Off in the distance, across the boiling lake, was what appeared to be a sort of drill digging into the ground.

"What is that thing?" Kai asks.

Milla squint her eyes to get a better view, unable to compete with Kai's superior vision. She finally get a clear view and sees about three extractors guarded by hoppers, slugs and fire spitters.

"I remember those things" Milla explains "They were at the ancient ruins, where the Kingdom Stone was... well, before it got stolen."

"Is that so?" Kai responds with intrigue, while maintaining his monotonous tone "Well, whatever they're mining for, we should stop them. I wouldn't want to be stuck in some cave just because of a couple of bots."

Milla nods in agreement, Kai continues "Though I guess trying to swim across this boiling lake would be suicide, we'll have to find another way around."

"Couldn't you just shoot them down?" Milla responds.

"I would if it wasn't for this mist."

"Maybe we should see if the other passages leads to somewhere, but let's not forget about Fang." Milla says in response.

"Why not."

Both Milla and Kai backtracks, this time using the lift to reach ground level; they reach the intersection and take the northwestern tunnel, however it led to a dead end. They were greeted with an old lantern that seemed to have ran out of oil, with a large boulders blocking the passage which seemed to have caused only a small stream of water to flow through underneath the large rocks. Assuming a cave-in caused the rocks to collapse blocking the northwestern passage, they went into the western tunnel, across from the exit tunnel.

The west tunnel began to slope down and the two canines found another intersection, this intersection was much smaller and simpler. The second intersection was a round room, about ten or twelve feet in diameter with only four passageways as opposed to eight, the northern entrance was blocked by wooden boards with the following writing: 不要输入：有毒气体, the writing translated to _Do Not Enter: Poisonous Gas_. The hound and husky decides to go further west and finds a small chamber.

Milla enters the chamber first, both her and Kai hears another rumbling sound, in an instant the ceiling began to collapse above the two dogs, caving-in the tunnel and separating Milla and Kai. Milla falls under a short panic and begins to breathe heavily as though she was losing oxygen, she hears a faint yell through the rocks.

"Milla! You're alive?" the faint voice said.

Milla shakes her self out of her panic attack and responds "Kai! is that you?"

"It's me, just keep going, I'll take another passageway and try to meet you!"

"OK" The semi-scared basset hound responds and began following the pathway. _It's okay Milla, you're not going to lose oxygen, you're going to be alright_, she thought to herself _It already been an hour, I need to hurry. I need to be brave._

Milla starts to dwell deeper into the mineshaft, the familiar sound of water drops and seismic disturbances echoes throughout the mines, leaving her uneasy. Every sound she hears causes a reflex that makes her raise her katana in defense, her sensitive ears hear the individual soundwaves of the faint and subtle sounds of the underground passages, the echoes leaving a chill down her spine and the small earthquakes causing her heart to race. After another fifteen minutes of walking she sees someone laying on her side, she runs towards the person and recognizes Fang.

Milla drags the unconscious tibetan wolf and with all her strength sits the wolf against the wall. Milla looks through her backpack and grabs a canteen _There's only a few sips left_, she thought giving some water to Fang. After another fifteen minutes the wolf begins to move, she slowly open her eyes and sees a familiar face, however she wasn't seeing Milla's face; the face she saw was a shy, tibetan wolf girl, her hair was a bright ginger, and her eyes was golden.

"G-Ginger?" Fang said, while under her hallucination.

Milla responds "It's me, Milla!"

Fang snaps out of her fantasy and realizes the hound girl sitting in front of her "M-Milla?!" Fang responds in an embarrassed and surprised voice "What… what are you doing here?! This place is dangerous!"

"I should be saying the same to you. Why did you split up from the other miners? Why are you even at the mines today? It been almost ninety minutes since me and Kai entered these mines."

"ninety minutes?!"

"Jin sent us to get you out of here, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"No you're not!" Milla argues, aware that Fang is lying.

"I'm fine I said!" Fang persisted, the wolf notices her yelling didn't phase the hound's serious expression, but she could tell the girl was uneasy in this setting, "I'm sorry, I guess I got myself in this big mess, like always."

"What do you mean?" Milla asks.

Fang clarifies "When I was working at the mines a few hours ago, I noticed a glint piece of rock, it took me a few minutes to notice that the glint rock was a small diamond, so I followed the tunnel where I found the diamond. When I found the diamond ore, I went towards it, but then the tunnel caved-in and I lost access to the deposit, I tried to find my way out but I got lost."

Milla changes the subject "Kai told me about Ginger and Zhao."

"Those diamonds was suppose to give us a better life, we could've live as a real family, just like my siblings wanted! It's not fair!" Fang began to cry in frustration "I've let them down, I bet they don't even see me as a sister anymore, just some girl who abandoned them" the wolf began to have an emotional breakdown.

Milla gave a sad sympathetic look to her face, she attempts to calm the melancholy wolf "You know, Ginger and Zhao, they've always talked about you, they still think that one day you'll come back to take them."

"Really?"

"Of course." Milla ensures with a smile on her face, "Also look at the people who supported you, the friends you've made. Jin deserves some respect, if you're really grateful then show it."

"Thank you, I needed to hear that." The wolf gets up and gave Milla a hug "I hope my sister turns out like you."

"It was my pleasure, come on let's get out of here. Can you still use that pickaxe strapped to your back."

"Yeah."

Milla gives out a faint smile, the two girls began to walk down the mineshafts.

* * *

Kai finds another lift down the southern passageway from the second intersection, as he went down the lift, he is greeted with several slugs and irises, he takes aim with his duel pistols and swiftly takes out every single mutant, he runs down the new pathway heading north, he finally returns to the boiling lake where he and Milla found the extractors, however there's no robots to be found. _Where are those machines_, Kai thinks to himself, he hears an earthquake, he decides to head back to the first intersection.

As he went back towards the lift at the southern passageway at the second intersection he notices a strange tunnel over at the mineshaft behind the lift. He walks down the mineshaft and investigates the mysterious tunnel. Unlike most of the tunnels he passed by, this one was round, and lacked any support beams and geographical features. _It's like this tunnel was made a few moments ago, but the only thing I can think of that would make these tunnels at such a short time..._ , Kai thought observing the mysterious tunnel from a distance, _Whatever caused this, might be responsible for all of these earthquakes_, Kai cautiously steps back.

He takes the lift back to ground level and runs over to the second intersection, the previous seismic activity seemed to have caused the gas from the northern passageway to escape into the intersection, the husky covers his face and hold his breath and dashes through the poisonous gas and reaches the main intersection.

Kai sees two figures appearing from the south-west tunnel at the main intersection, he recognizes the two figures of a hound and wolf. The hound responds to Kai's presence "Look who I found!" the hound starts running towards Kai on all fours as the wolf follows.

Kai gives off a faint smile "I see you're in one piece, Milla" he responds "You also found Fang, let's hurry back then. These mines are going to collapse in definitely, we've been here for two hours and fifteen minutes now."

"What do you mean these mines are going to collapse?!" Fang responds in a worried voice

"Something is drilling through these mines, something very big."

"Could it be what's causing these small earthquakes?"

"I'm sure of it, let's get out of this place, now!"

The three canines hear an extremely loud rumble, large rocks began to fall from the ceiling. Milla prepares an energy shield large enough to protect all three of canines from the falling rocks. The eastern tunnel which leads to the Běifēng Mine's exit, began to collapse. The multitude of falling rocks prevented Milla and co from leaving the energy shield which covered them like an umbrella, preventing them from taking the exit tunnel; the eastern tunnel finally gives out and the exit is blocked.

"How are we going to get out now!" Milla said after the rocks ceased falling, immediately another rumble followed and from the ground emerged a large mechanical worm-like drill, the drill spun at an extreme speed, and the worm had what appears to be small lasers, likely used to cut through harder rocks and metals, surrounding the drill of the robot.

"I guess we found out what caused those seismic activities!" Kai yells, somewhat intimidated by the mechanical worm. The worm's several lasers converges, creating a spiralling ball of energy; firing a larger, more powerful beam of concentrated heat directly towards the canines, the laser cuts through the walls of the cavern with ease as Milla, Kai and Fang dodges the attack. The worm began the drill towards them and through the cavern walls.

The drilling caused more rocks to collapse from the ceiling, Milla creates the same shield from before in Kai's and Fang's defense. As soon as the worm emerges, it begins to charge up it's mining laser, Kai aims his sniper rifle at the worm's drill and fires an explosive bullet, the explosion halts the worms attack and damages it's drill causing it to malfunction, however the force of the explosion caused more seismic activity.

"What are you trying to do, bury us?!" Fang complains, the worm charges at the unsuspecting wolf.

"Look out!" Milla and Kai yell simultaneously, Fang dodges the raging worm.

The machine was unable to properly drill through the wall with it's damaged drill, Fang takes the pickaxe still strapped to her back and starts whacking the robot with it. Milla and Kai witnesses the scene with doubt, "What exactly is that suppose to do?" Kai asks in response to Fang's actions.

"I don't know! I don't want to do nothing, you know!" Fang responds in an exasperated voice.

The worm began moving again the moment Fang's pickaxe began to break through one of it's segments, revealing a large quantity of crystals, it's drill began to function and the worm drilled into the wall again causing more seismic activity.

The worm appears off the opposite wall and charges at Milla, she moves out of the way, Kai aims his rifle at the worm and another explosion occurs exploding the worms mid-segments and cutting it down half it's size, a swarm of energy crystals scatters across the cavernous intersection.

Milla aims the familiar square of energy directly at the worm, which emerged from the the south-eastern tunnel aiming it's drill towards her, the surge of psychic energy causes the drill to malfunction again, the worm crashes against the floor. She dodges out of the way, and Kai aims at a stalactite above the stationary worm, causing the rock formation to fall on top of the mechanical worm.

The worm bursts into scrap metal, scattering several crystals and releasing a swarm of mutants. The three canines watch the mutants fly out of the mines through the round lattice at the ceiling of the intersection.

Fang makes an optimistic smile "Well, that's that!"

Kai responds in a condescending manner "It's not like you did anything useful."

"Hey! I did something… useful." the wolf retorts.

"Whacking alien machinery with a steel pickaxe?"

"It still damaged it!"

Milla interrupts "Can you stop arguing! We all worked together to take down that robot."

"Thank you Milla." Fang responds in agreement

A large destructive earthquake began, shaking the ground below the canine's feet with a multitude of rocks raining down above them; the Běifēng Mines was beginning to collapse.


	9. A New Mission

**-8-**

The constant rumbling of seismic activity causes Milla and Fang to look around frantically as Kai calmly observes the environment for an exit.

"Hey before I suggest something, are you sure there's not another exit somewhere?" Kai asks Fang

The worried tibetan wolf responds "I'm pretty sure there's not another exit, besides I'd rather stay here than in some underground tunnel in the middle of an earthquake."

"We can't just stay here, this isn't any earthquake; the mineshaft is starting to collapse! Anyways I think our only exit is right above us" Kai points directly towards the lattice at the intersection's ceiling, both Milla and Fang looks at the lattice and gives Kai a doubtful look.

"How exactly are we suppose to get up there?"

"...and how are we going to cut through those bars in time?" Milla continues for Fang

"Milla is going to cut through the lattice. As for getting up there, well let me think for a moment." Kai explains, the falling rocks continue as the earth continues to growl.

"Me?!" Milla responds in an exasperated voice

"This is... theoretical, but if you can transfer your psychic energy into that blade then you can likely cut through the lattice quick enough. Just take this rope and pull us up when you reach the top." Kai grabs a random rope from the floor.

Fang makes a frightenly skeptical face, Milla responds "You're insane! I don't know if I can do that!"

"Well the handle is made from the same material as your anklets and gloves, so you better hope it works, unless you want us to be fossils!"

Milla thinks about the situation and reluctantly nods her head, Kai continues "I guess you can use your psychic powers to boost yourself up, good luck."

Milla with a burst of energy from her feet launches herself into the air, she quickly uses her super shield burst for more reach and grabs on to a rigid stalactite with her right hand. She climbs up the large collapsing stalactite, with another psychic blast she boosts herself towards the lattice. The hound hangs on to a convenient bar next to the lattice with one hand, holding her katana with the other, _I hope I don't fall_ she thought to herself.

"You're okay over there!" Fang yells, "No rush, but can you please hurry up!"

Milla concentrates as she attempts to transfer her psychic energy into her katana, as she focuses on the blade, green sparks began to manifest from the sword _Come on! Please! JUST WORK!_, Milla's thoughts began to run wild as she focuses _PLEASE_, somehow by command the blade made a familiar jade glow that gave her a sense of salvation.

Milla immediately slices the grid open.

The square piece of grid, that Milla cut off, falls down in front of Kai and Fang, both canines look towards each other in surprise, "Going to be honest, I didn't think that would actually work." Kai admits.

Milla climbs into the surface and throws down the rope that Kai gave her, as the two canines began to climb the rope, Milla notices that she's somewhere at the city, several miners and soldiers stood there watching in awe as the basset hound, that just cut through metal bars, struggles to pull something up from the hole she emerged from; she makes a nervous laugh "Eh, can you help me, pretty please" the basset hound asks.

Fang responds "Why are you asking! We're climbing for our lives!"

The residents recognizes Fang's exasperated voice and ran to aid Milla, together the miners and soldiers helps Milla pull Kai and Fang out from Běifēng Mine. The Běifēng residents who came to aid her began to talk among one another.

"What happened, why is Fang Shi still doing in those Mines?"

"I hope she's okay, let's keep pulling!"

"Alright guys let's pull one more time, in one! two! three!"

With one strong pull, Milla and the townspeople pull the two canines out of the collapsing mines. The moment Kai and Fang climbs out of the opening everyone hears a massive crashing sound, dust began to spew out of the opening.

* * *

The three canines are at the infirmary, they are covered in dirt and soot and a kind lynx nurse offers them some tea which seemed to have been made with health petals, "Here you go, I hope this makes you feel better" says the nurse very kindly.

"Thank you" said Fang, the nurse was caught off guard by Fang's change of tone.

"It was my pleasure, you're welcome Fang Shi" the nurse responds "What about you Milla Basset, Kai Xin?", Milla and Kai gestures by nodding their heads, the nurse makes a big smile, and exits the room.

After a few minutes, Jin enters the room "I hope you guys are alright, I'm deeply sorry for the inconvenience."

Milla makes a wide grin "It's OK, I'm just glad Fang is okay. Fang have something to say to you." she look towards Fang's direction.

"Oh, is that so?" Jin gives off an intrigued face.

Fang begins to speak "Um, I'm sorry…"

"Sorry for what?"

"I'm sorry I haven't thank you for all you've done for me, for my brother and sister." Fang answers in a humble voice

"You don't need to thank me, I was happy to help. I can see Milla taught you a few lessons though" Jin says glaring at the smiling basset hound.

Kai interrupts with his usual monotonic voice "So, with that all said and done, what next?"

"Well, if Milla is willing, we can continue her training. I've finished making her katana's sheath, this one should be more convenient for her" Jin hands over the simple brown sheath to the excited basset hound, sitting up on top of the infirmary bed.

"Thank you" says the grateful hound.

"You guys should get some rest. As for the situation about Běifēng Mines, I'm sure the mayor will somehow get the miners and even the Qin soldiers to help out with it's reconstruction; in fact the mayor wanted me to thank you for riding the mines of those evil machines."

All three canines makes a faint nod, Jin leaves the room and the canines begins to rest.

* * *

four months have passed and at the backyard behind Jin's house is Milla holding her katana, wearing her tank top and pants, practicing her technique. Kai and Fang observes the hound's movements and strikes while munching on potato chips, Jin steps out and sees the young girl's improvements, "I'm impressed, it only have been four months and you've shown significant improvement" Jin said in an impressed tone.

"Well, I did have a good teacher!" Milla said with great determination.

"I think anyone could have taught you how to use a katana." Jin chuckles, "I think it's time you're given a challenge.", Milla tilts her head in confusion.

Jin responds with a grin "You will duel me.", Milla's expression changed from confusion to intimidation.

"This will be good." Kai said in anticipation as he makes a dark grin.

Fang makes a worried expression "I know she've improved, but Jin don't you think you're too advanced for her?" she protested with a soft voice, so that only Jin can hear her.

Jin hands over one of his duel swords to Fang, and says "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll handle herself, though that doesn't mean she'll win."

"If you know she doesn't have a good chance to win, then why fight her?"

"It's more like survival, and some humility won't hurt. Though she's already quite modest, so I suppose she needs more determination than humility."

Milla prepares her katana and stance as Jin draws his singular sword, pointing the blade at the hound. Jin charges at Milla with incredible speed, she blocks his attack and moves out of range, "If you can use your dragon speed, then I guess I can use my psychic powers!" she called as her sword emanates a glowing jade energy.

Jin responds "Be my guess, as long as you're using your sword!" the dragon charges at the hound again; instead of blocking the attack, Milla attempts to parry the dragons attack with a burst of psychic energy with a swing of her blade, Jin dodges the attack and strikes back. The hound makes a defensive position, however the dragon breaks through her defense and thrusts his sword at Milla, causing her to fall backwards with the blade inches from her face.

"Now you know how I felt!" Kai said disregarding any possible danger towards Milla.

Jin sheaths his sword. "It makes me happy to see you're adapting to your blade." he said as he helps the hound up, "You deserve a nice lunch." he turn towards Kai and Fang and asks a similar question, "You two want something as well?"

Both the observing canines makes a small nod.

After everyone eats lunch, the three canines sits down at Jin's living room waiting for their host to arrive, the draconic general walks in and begins to speak "As much as it pains me to say, I think it's time that you two leave Běifēng, not for the reasons you think. I have a favor to ask you."

"A favor?" Milla responds.

"I need you guys to go to the Imperial Capital Zhōngyāng."

Kai makes a suspicious look on his face "The capital?! Why do you need us to go there?"

"I can't give you the details, but I need you to take my place at Qin's Annual Establishment Festival. Normally peasants cannot enter the Imperial Capital, but every year in september they celebrate the founding of the Qin Empire. A large quantity of citizens will be attending, including the current leaders of the four compass direction cities; the northern mining city of Běifēng, the southern coastal village of Nángǎng, the western agriculture village of Xīchéng, and the eastern trade city of Dōng mén."

"What? You need us to keep the peace or something?" Kai said sarcastically.

"More or less."

"Alright, then we'll attend the festival for you." Milla said "But what about our training?"

Jin pats the hound's head, making a smile "I think it's time you start to teach yourself. There's no better teacher than experience, but don't rely heavily on your blade, especially when you have other abilities that can help you in battle."

Milla nods back, both Milla and Kai heads towards the inn, they pack their stuff and waves goodbye to the General and Fang.

"I don't trust his motives for sending us over to Zhōngyāng." Kai whispers.

"I'm sure he have very good intentions" Milla says in Jin's defense

As Jin and Fang watch the two dogs leave the city, Fang heads over back at the house and Jin begins to ponder to himself _Perhaps that girl… that girl could help you my empress and maybe even change this empire… for the better…_


	10. One's Identity

**-9-**

Milla and Kai are back at the Qin Plains, it only took them a few days to return to the calm windy plains in contrast to the whole week they spent reaching Běifēng. The sun began to set and they are in need of a light source.

"We should've brought some firewood with us, before entering these plains." Kai said as he views the sunset, likely calculating the exact time, "I'd say it's about a quarter past six."

"We don't need to worry about light." Milla says as a glowing cube of jade energy manifests from her hand.

"I'm guessing we're having fruit for dinner then?"

"Sorry, my Phantom Block can't cook food." Milla admits

"Well if that's the case, then we matters well just keep on going till it's time to sleep."

Milla looks into her backpack and takes out some fruit, she tosses the food towards Kai. The two dogs starts to eat their food while the hound holds the light source with her left hand, the familiar sound of the wind whistling through the sparse trees puts Milla at ease, _It feels so nice to be back here, Jin said that the leaders of the compass direction cities will be attending, including the newly crowned empress, I wonder how's she's like?_, she thought as she lays down on the soft green grass, staring into the usual blue swirl of energy. The hound draws her sword and stares into the steel blade, she begins to recall what Jin said to her:

"_I think it's time you start to teach yourself. There's no better teacher than experience, but don't rely heavily on your blade, especially when you have other abilities that can help you in battle."_

_To think that more than two years ago, before I met Lilac and Carol, that I didn't think much about my powers, I thought it was natural. Now, all I think about is how I can improve them, but I also feel… different. There's no one else like me, most people just think I use magic, Kai seemed to have been smart enough to know the difference. If this isn't magic, if I'm the only one with these powers…_

_Why am I thinking this way, I shouldn't worry myself. I should get some shut eye, instead of thinking too hard I should be focusing for the day ahead._

* * *

The next day in the afternoon, Milla and Kai continues their journey to the Imperial Capital, Zhōngyāng. The hound and husky notices a vehicle off to the side of the road and investigates the site, "Who do you think owns this?" Milla asks, Kai simply shrugs his shoulders in response, after a few more minutes of examining the mysterious vehicle, she recognizes it, "This is-"

"Hey! Long time no see!", both canines hears a voice, and sees a middle aged hare, next to him was a familiar stern looking giant panda.

"Jing! Wei!" Milla calls out to the hare and panda, waving both her hands.

Wei makes a great chuckle "It's a pleasure to see you again, Milla Basset, you too Kai." Milla gestures with a bow while Kai stays leaning against the vehicle

"So where are you two going?" Jing asks.

"We're heading over to Zhōngyāng." Kai responds.

Wei's makes a serious expression, and responds "Zhōngyāng? I see, so the general sent you there, let me give you some advice before you enter the capital."

Milla and Kai makes a serious expression in response, attentively listening to Wei's wisdom.

"Do not let anyone in Zhōngyāng know that you came from the origin kingdoms; Shang Mu, Shang Tu, and Shuigang."

"Why not?" Milla said in confusion, while Kai makes a uninterested expression, as though he already knows Wei's reasoning.

"Although the residents and officials born and raised in the compass direction cities usually do not care rather or not you're a Qin citizen, Zhōngyāng is different. They don't take kindly to any outsiders, especially those who came from the origin kingdoms. If they was to find out that you was one of the heroes that saved Avalice, all I can say is that they wouldn't be very happy, with that said, please try to keep your identity a secret."

Milla makes a large sigh "Alright, hey Jing why are you going to the capital?"

Jing makes his usual smile "I'm actually Xīchéng's most profitable farmer, you can say that our crops are pride of the western village, but I also help out with the other farmers as well, I'm going to the festival to sell some of my produce and grains."

The hare continues "Also me and Wei actually knew each other for years now so knowing the mayor very well can help out. Our children being close friends also helps."

Wei joins the conversation "Speaking of children, Talia have been doing great since you left, in fact, she've gotten quite brave. I guess you've inspired her."

Milla modestly scratches the back of her head as Kai makes a small grin.

"Hey, we can take you to Zhōngyāng, we was just getting supplies from a smaller village, or do you plan as walking all the way to the city?" Jing references.

_De Ja Vu_, Milla thought to herself and accepts Jing's offer with a big smile, both the hound and husky gets into the vehicle with Jing and Wei, the vehicle drives through the road to Zhōngyāng.

* * *

The next morning Milla continue to think in ways that made her uneasy, _I don't understand, why do Zhōngyāng hate outsiders? It doesn't seem right, I normally try to hide my full name from people anyways, though that usually doesn't end well for me, but to hide my identity because where I come from?_

_Maybe I shouldn't complain, I never liked my recent fame anyways…_

"Hey we're here!" Milla snaps out of her thoughts from hearing Jing's voice, her and Kai look out of their respective sides of the roofless vehicle and see's Zhōngyāng in the distance.


	11. The Establishment Festival Begins

**-10-**

Zhōngyāng is the capital city of the Qin Empire; divided into three layers, the outer layer of the city consists of the commercial and recreational districts filled with parks, shopping centers, restaurants, and community centers; the middle layer is the residential and educational districts, since Zhōngyāng consist mostly of aristocrats, the district consists of villas, mansions, universities and private schools; the center consists of the royal, governmental and religious districts.

Milla and Kai can see the large amount of people entering through one of the four entrances into the city. The outer wall was about twelve feet tall and was made of stone, Qin soldiers guarded each entrance with either spears or rifles equipped directing the commoners into the outer layer of the city, where the majority of the festival will be taking place. Jing parks his vehicle at the side of the road leading to the western gate.

As they enter the city entrance a soldier halts them.

"Identification please." the soldier demanded.

Wei responds "I am the current mayor of Xīchéng, Wei Tian." he looks towards the other three besides him "This is Jing Yu, he's here to raise money for our village. These children with us are called Kai and Milla." he attempts to keep the hound's and husky's last name unknown.

The soldier gestures with a short nod "Move forward, Wei Tian you may go to the governmental district to meet with the other town leaders; as for the rest of you, go to one of the waiting areas for further instruction."

Wei gestures Jing with a short nod, the hare nods in return as though he knew what the panda meant.

"Let's find a waiting area, stay with me until we are instructed to leave." Jing explains to both canines.

As Milla, Kai and Jing walk through the streets, looking for a waiting area, they witness how the tranquil parks and streets slowly became crowded with people of all types, a variety of colorful banners and decorations paints the city as lanterns of all shapes and sizes are found scattered throughout. They finally find an available waiting area, about ten minutes later a cheerful guide appears before the two canines, surprising them.

"Welcome to the Annual Establishment Festive!" The spunky guide says with great excitement.

"Thank you!" Milla responds with a big smile.

Kai interrupts "Over selling it, don't you think?" he said with a clearly annoyed look to his face. Milla scalds the monotonic husky as she bumps him with her shoulder.

"Sorry about that." Jing apologizes.

"It's alright, anyways take these IDs and have a great festival!" the guide says, handing over what appears to be cards with their first names written on the card with the pictures they took back at the west gate, before they entered the city. Milla, Kai and Jing take their respective cards, the guide tends to the other guests.

"Alright I'll be over at my booth, you two be careful and whatever you do, do not let anyone know who you are." Jing says in a soft voice.

"Don't worry I have an idea" Kai ensures, Jing gestures with a nod and leaves the two canines to themselves.

"Luckily for us I bought us some cloaks back at Běifēng, initially for when it rains but I suppose we can use them to maintain our cover" Kai hands over Milla a beige colored cloak as he puts on his grey one, the husky straps his rifle over the cloak but keeps the dual pistols and knife hidden underneath. Milla puts her cloak on, hiding her katana underneath; she still felt uneasy about hiding her identity for the reasons Wei explained, _It's just isn't right… _

As the two cloaked dogs walk down the crowded, loud and colorful streets, they see a large arrangement of carnival rides and booths, ranging from stores to minigames.

"Let's get on that ride!" she argues, pointing towards what appears to be a swinging ship.

"Seriously?" the husky responds with a monotonous manner.

"Come on! Even you want to have some fun once in a while, don't be a killjoy!"

"No." Kai persists.

"Please, I really want something to put my mind out of hiding my identity."

"So, you've tried to hide who you are before."

"This is different, I've tried to hide who I am for personal reasons, but not to hide where I'm from!" Milla admits in an exasperated voice.

Kai gives off a loud sigh "Fine." he says reluctantly, Milla makes a large excited smile as she dashes on all fours towards the admission booth, the husky follows behind her. They buy an admission ticket and waits in line, the embarrassed husky makes another loud sigh, _Most of the kids in this line are like nine or ten, granted that's only a few years younger, but the only other older people are their parents._

As both canines enter the ride Milla continues to process her reasoning, _Ugh, this hood is bothering my ears and hair. It feels weird hiding my face, to be notorious… I wonder why Jin sent us here, did he even know about this place's feelings towards me, I think he said he's wasn't from Qin too, where did he said he's from again…_

… _Lóng tǔdì?_

_Besides, maybe he knows how this feel, perhaps I shouldn't let it get to me…_

Kai snaps his fingers in front of Milla's face, she snaps out of her thoughts and realizes that the ride finished it's circuit. The hound sees a few worried adult faces accompanied with the confused faces of their children.

"I'm alright" she announces, as she leaves the scene with Kai; she can hear the whispers from the crowds with her sensitive ears,

"Who is that girl?"

"Is she alright, she was acting kind'a weird"

"Why is she cloaked, what does she have to hide?"

Milla tried to cover her ears. Despite being capable of controlling her hearing, her curiosity and insecurity got the better of her, still hearing the crowd's whispers; she hears Kai's voice from the barrage of strange voices that seem to have been piercing through her ears like needles "Milla you're alright? Want to go to another ride, or you want something to eat?"

Feeling relieved to hear a familiar voice, Milla responds "I think something to eat will be nice." she says breathing heavily from stress.

The two dogs make their way to a restaurant for lunch, after going through the menu both Milla and Kai orders a turkey and fish sandwich respectively with fries, the husky comments on the type of food the restaurant makes "Who knew the rich eat this too." he said in his usual monotonic voice, the previously distraught hound makes a small smile and giggles.

It was about one in the afternoon and the two canines continued to walk around occasionally getting on rides and playing minigames to preoccupy themselves. When it became half past two, the crowds became more dense and harder to traverse; it was around three o'clock when Milla realizes that she lost sight of Kai, she didn't want to cause a scene so she just continued on her own.


	12. The Black Mage

**-11-**

It was a quarter before four in the afternoon, Milla continues to tread through the large crowds of people in an attempted to search for Kai, however all she can see is a sea of guests. The commoners wore casual and basic clothing while the aristocrats wore more complex and regal clothes, she notices a few soldiers, workers and entertainers among the crowd. Some guests seemed fairly suspicious and others, mostly children, were as innocent as ever. Milla asks a few people if they've seen the monotonic husky, wearing a grey cloak, however her efforts were in vain.

Milla begins to worry about Kai's whereabouts, _It'll be fine, he's likely waiting or even looking for me… I think… _

_There's so many people here, a lot more than I'm used to. I just hope things goes well for us._

Milla see's a booth selling popsicles sticks and buys herself a cherry flavored popsicle. She sits on top of an available bench as she eats the fruity popsicle, the flavor distracts the hound of her current situation, temporarily relaxing her.

Ten minutes later she continues to look for the husky who accompanied her for months now, but like before no one knew anyone by that description.

It was now almost five o'clock in the afternoon and the hound is yet to find the lost husky, _At least his cloak makes him noticeable, but with this many people around I can't use my hearing nor smell_. Milla drops her head in shame, unable to use her naturally powerful senses nor track Kai with a psychic energy signature _Kai, where are you?_

Milla notices what appears to be a hooded figure, she begins to walk towards the figure hoping for it to be Kai. As she approaches the hooded person she realizes that it wasn't Kai, the person wore a black robe held together with what appears to be a beige sash. It was an older male rabbit with orange hair, white fur and heterochromic eyes which were coincidentally the same color as her anklets.

"Sorry, I thought you were someone else." Milla apologizes.

"It's no problem, though it seems we are both looking for someone." The rabbit spoke with a calming voice which seemed to have relieved the hound of all her stress.

Milla carelessly responds with a bizarre question "Can… Can I hear your voice again?"

"Okay?"

Milla realizes what she just asked, "Eh, I'm sorry about that, so you said you were looking for someone too?" she says with an embarrassed voice with her face turning red, _Why did I asked that?! That's weirder than asking someone if I can touch their hair, though Lilac's hair is kind'a fun to play with… _

The rabbit gestures with a mellow smile, "I was travelling with a girl, about your age actually. She's a panda with a dark purple cloak on."

Milla ponders for a moment, _A panda girl, my age? That sounds familiar_, she finally shakes her head in response.

"Ah, I see. Perhaps we can find our companions together?"

"Sure" Milla responds.

"Mind if I ask for your name?"

The hound hesitates to respond, "M-Milla" she said with a soft voice.

"I know you're not from around here, neither am I. Don't be afraid to tell me you're full name."

"Milla Basset" She says with a deep breath, "What's your's?"

The rabbit makes a warm smile, "My name is Vix Cole."

* * *

It took Kai about a half hour after splitting up from Milla to noticed that the heroic basset hound wasn't following him anymore, _She got herself lost, didn't she_. The husky ponders on what action to take, _I could try to look for her, but perhaps it's best I wait till night, where everyone will most likely find places to stay._

_I think it's best to wait, though knowing her, she's likely looking for me now._

The monotonic husky decides to get some food first before searching for Milla. He buys himself a bowl of chow mein and a quick drink.

After finishing his dinner he went to look for Milla, unlike her however he was more focused, with his powerful sight and photographic memory he was able to look through the thick crowds more efficiently, however despite his skills he was unable to find the hound, _I'm sure I'll find her before she finds me, there's too many people for her to use her sense of smell or hearing, also she didn't tag me with her psychic energy because I never allowed her to do so._

_Ironic how I'm right now a more efficient tracker, than a naturally born tracker._

It was half past five, the sun was reaching dusk, the sky began to turn orange as the lanterns start to glow. As Kai begins to tread through the crowds like usual, suddenly in the corner of his eye he notices a cloaked figure walking past him, the person didn't appear to have notice him. The husky managed to get a good enough look of the person's face to see that it was female with dark blue hair, the girl was about his height and her face looked young, he assumes that she was about his age however he couldn't see anymore details through her dark purple cloak.

Kai quickly turns around to approach the cloaked girl but she was nowhere to be found, likely lost in the crowd, "Who in the Ancient's name was that?" Kai says to himself, he continues to glare suspiciously at the direction the girl was walking towards, "Something isn't right, who exactly was that girl and why do I feel like she's someone of importance.", the husky shakes his head and continued looking for Milla.

Although Kai attempts to keep his attention towards searching for the lost hound, he couldn't stop thinking about that cloaked girl, _Argh why do I keep thinking about that girl, I know something about her is shady, but why does that matter. It's not like I'm any better…_

_That's it! I need to find out who on Avalice is that girl, let me find Milla first then we'll find out together. Something is going to happen in this forsaken city, I just know it._

Kai couldn't keep his patience so he decides to ask one of the occasional Qin soldiers for the mysterious girl's identification, "Hey, have you seen a girl, about my age wearing a dark purple cloak?"

The soldier responds "No, I can't say I have; is she a friend of yours?"

"Not really, just curious. Here's a better question have you seen a basset hound around my age too, she have orange hair, green eyes, beige fur, currently wearing a beige cloak."

"I have seen a basset hound of that description, she was with some guy with a black robe who held some sort a stave with a yellow crystal at the tip."

"Thank you" Kai said with his monotonous voice.

Kai makes a worried yet monotonous expression as he processes what he just heard, _A guy with a black robe, and he had an energy manipulation staff?! The guard said the crystal was yellow, so the person Milla's with have __**EARTH **__affinity._

_What did you get yourself into Milla… _


	13. Reflections

**-12-**

The evening was more tranquil and quiet than the afternoon as the several lanterns found across the city made a warm glow of either yellow, orange or red. The majority of the guests either went home or stayed at an inn; the few people outside were soldiers making their grounds, shady individuals, store owners and those with either relaxation or romantic purposes. Milla and Vix continue to walk through the park, the minimal amount of people finally gave the basset hound a chance to relax, she makes a deep breath as the evening air flowed through her nostrils.

Vix, who was besides the hound also took in the peace and quiet of the outer layer's botanical gardens. Shortly after checking his stave he looks towards the basset hound who accompanied him, _To think that of all people I would find in this place, it would be Milla Basset_, however despite his calm demeanor something was bothering the rabbit, _Why can't I see her affinity? Everyone have affinity, at least everyone in Avalice that is… _

_Perhaps I should ask her… No, I don't think she would know much about the Wu Xing, she doesn't strike me as someone who's interested in such technicalities._

_The thing is that, from what I've heard she was able to make shields and projectiles. Surely she must be using ether, right? After all, there's only two forms of energy manipulation, physical and elemental._

_It doesn't matter right now, I should ask her why she's here to begin with._

"I must ask, what is someone like _you _doing here?" Vix asks.

Milla makes a confused look on her face "Someone like _me_?" she says in response, with a somewhat offended tone in her voice.

"I apologize if my question sounded offensive. I know you're one of the people who helped saved Avalice, but I didn't want to reveal that I knew your identity until you were in a more calm environment. I can imagine the stress such fame can cause."

The hound changes her expression with a smile "I'm sorry, thank you for your consideration."

"So, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I don't know really. I went to Qin in search of my parents, at least that was my original intentions; right now I'm doing a favor for a friend."

"Your parents?" Vix thinks for a moment sympathizing for Milla "I know how it feels to have a family member missing, I suppose we also made friends to compensate for our losses but that doesn't mean that we should forget them, or our past."

"Yeah."

"Though let's not talk about such sad things, let's continue finding our companions."

Milla gives a determined grin and nods in response, she makes another deep breath through her nose "I can finally track Kai's scent, he's actually really far. The scent is faint."

Milla begins to follow the husky's scent with Vix following right behind her.

* * *

Kai is leaning against a lamp post with his sniper rifle strapped off and leaning against the same lamp post, perpendicular to his position. Still pondering on who Milla could be with, the husky thinks to himself, _A man in a black robe, with an energy manipulation staff. Usually only two types of people would own such a staff, he's either royalty or he's… _

_No. Whoever that person is, he can't be…_

The husky stops thinking about Milla's whereabouts and more about the cloaked girl:

_Then there's that girl, perhaps she knows who Milla's with. They're both seem shady and I don't like it, whatever Milla got herself into I hope it won't cause us much trouble._

_So we have a man in a black robe, I can assume he have __**EARTH **__affinity and then there's that girl who's in the dark purple cloak, if she's traveling with the mystery mage then maybe she uses ether too, then what's her affinity and what instrument does she use to manipulate energy?_

_Why would they be interested in Milla, other than her being one of the people who saved this world. I was able figure out the Milla doesn't use affinity, so what does she have that they want?_

_I could just be over thinking things, ugh why am I worried about Milla anyways, we're not friends or anything… _

Kai continues to think everything over, everytime he thinks more about the mage and the cloaked girl, the more uneasy he becomes. _Why do I keep worrying over Milla, she can take care of herself, she lived by herself for years and even after what happened two years ago… _

… _I know, I have to find her anyways, rather I like it or not._

As the husky begins to backtrack, he goes through a sudden realization. _That girl did notice me!_, Kai snaps his tough in frustration the vivid memory of his encounter with the cloaked girl comes back to him: the moment he noticed the girl, he remembered her gesturing with a faint smile.

"How did I not notice that expression when we cross paths" He says to himself in a monotonous raspy voice as he begins to run.

_I can only hope that Milla is able to follow my scent now… _

* * *

Milla and Vix decide to get something to eat, it was about seven in the evening, the hound and rabbit bought some chow mein and sat down on a bench. As Milla eats her noodles she notices Vix's blank expression, "Hey you're okay?" she says as she swallows her food.

Vix notices the hound talking to him "Oh sorry, I'm thinking that's all."

"So you're a mage?"

"Huh, oh this." Vix responds as he holds his stave horizontally, the staff was black with a yellow crystal at the top, the crystal had metalic black swirls besides the crystal with a piece of black metal sticking out of both swirls, which made the staff look like a hoe, "Yes, I guess you can say that." he says with his usual warm smile.

"It looks funny with those pieces of metal sticking out" Milla says with a smile, "So what kind of magic do you do?"

"It's actually called energy manipulation, but 'magic' is an acceptable term. In terms of what it does, well you can say that I'm… special."

"Special?" Milla responds, still keeping her smile "You can say that I'm special too!"

Vix makes a small laugh, "I'm sure you are, you did save this world. I think we should resume looking for our friends."

Milla gestures with a nod, both the hound and rabbit makes their way through the streets, lit up in a blend of warm colors due to the several lanterns. As the hound walk through the streets with Vix, she notices someone wearing a dark purple cloak, as she get's a better look of the persons face her heart sank as she recognizes a panda girl about her age, with dark blue hair and purple eyes. _It can't be… _

… _Norah?!_


End file.
